Objective: The objective of the post-graduate training program is to train physicians to conduct methodologically rigorous health services research that is designed to improve the effectiveness and outcomes of clinical practice, to improve the field's ability to provide access to high quality and cost-effective care, and to provide data relevant to translation of this research to health policy. The program's strength has been developing physicians to perform question-driven multidisciplinary research and preparing them to be independent investigators, with a special emphasis on developing minority investigators. [unreadable] [unreadable] Program Content: The two-year training program requires participation in a Master's Degree program in Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology. The program has a formal didactic curriculum designed to provide conceptual, as well as practical, foundations and skills in health services research. Trainees are expected to complete all 27 courses in the formal curriculum and to integrate the resultant knowledge and skills in the design and conduct of an independent research project under the close supervision of faculty mentors. Trainees devote 80 percent of their overall time to their own project, which they present every six weeks at the Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research where mentors, program directors, and fellows provide group feedback. Cornell requests six post-doctoral slots for each year of the award. [unreadable] [unreadable] Program philosophy: A central tenet of this program's philosophy is that trainees' projects must be independent, not merely an extension of ongoing faculty projects. The principal investigator believes that the independence of the project is essential to the development of new investigators. [unreadable] [unreadable] Faculty: This program is built on the strengths of a multidisciplinary team, which is comprised of faculty with diverse expertise in the basic sciences of health services research, including clinical epidemiology, health economics, biostatistics, and behavioral science drawn from the Ithaca, NYC and Westchester campuses of Cornell University, Columbia University, and the Hospital for Special Surgery. Cornell faculty members have collaborated on multiple innovative and successful research projects, and training programs over the last decade. The new collaboration of this Cornell program with the New York Academy of Medicine with its pre-eminence in health policy for urban minority populations provides an outstanding infrastructure for this health services research training program. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]